Ben Brody is an American photographer
Episode 192: Ben Brody and I speak about his excellent book Attention Servicemember published by MASS Books.
Ben was kind enough to send me his book to review for American Suburb X. At the time, I was quite bogged down with a stack of reviews and felt that I would not be able to get to everything in due order, so I posted a small review on Instagram of the book as I do with some material that comes along in the post that is unexpected. In doing so, I made contact with Ben.
I remember returning to the book often. I kept having this nagging feeling that was doing a disservice to Ben, the book, and the people inside the book by not covering it. It is an incredibly thought-out publication on a very difficult subject. It reminded me immediately that the photography that I am used to covering (the art side of things) is all well and fine, but truly lacks the kind of real-world experience found inside Ben’s book. It made me re-examine how I view the effort it takes a photographer to make images and what lengths they go to to achieve them.
Ben and I had a great discussion about his time covering the wars in the Middle East. It was interesting to hear how he was able to get access to the theaters of war that he did and how his own nagging sensation about material on a hard drive would eventually inform his decision to publish Attention Servicemember. Please tune in and pick up the book!!!
